How to create a glazing system?

This guide will show you how to create a glazing system (complex fenestration system) using the GlazingSystem class. The glazing system can be added to the EnergyPlus model's construction_complex_fenestration_state object. See How to run a simple EnergyPlus simulation? for more details.

The GlazingSystem class contains information about the glazing system's solar absorptance, solar and visible transmittance and reflectance, and etc. The solar and photopic results are calcuated using pyWincalc.

Call create_glazing_system() to create a glazing system. The function takes in the name of the glazing system, a list of glazing/shading product files, and an optional list of gap layers. The function returns a GlazingSystem instance.

The glazing and shading product files can be downloaded from the IGSDB website. The downloaded glazing product files are in JSON format and the shading product files are in XML format. The product files contain information about the product's transmittance, reflectance, and etc.

Note

The list of glazing/shading product files should be in order from exterior to interior.

Note

The glazing system created by using create_glazing_system() has a default air gap at 0.0127 m thickness.

Import the required classes and functions

import frads as fr

Example 1 Two layers of glazing products with default gap

Double clear glazing system

The glazing system consists of the following:

• 1 layer of clear glass
• Gap: default air gap at 0.0127 m thickness
• 1 layer of clear glass

gs = fr.create_glazing_system(
    name="double_clear",
    layers=[
        Path("igsdb_product_364.json"), # clear glass
        Path("igsdb_product_364.json"), # clear glass
    ],
)

Example 2 Two layers of glazing products with custom gap

The gaps argument takes in a list of Gap objects. Each Gap object consists of a list of Gas objects and a float defining the gap thickness. The Gas object consists of the gas type and the gas fraction. The gas fraction is a float between 0 and 1. The sum of all gas fractions should be 1.

Electrochromatic glazing system

The glazing system consists of the following:

• 1 layer of electrochromic glass
• 1 gap (10% air and 90% argon) at 0.0127 m thickness
• 1 layer of clear glass

gs = fr.create_glazing_system(
    name="ec",
    layers=[
        "igsdb_product_7405.json", # electrochromic glass
        "igsdb_product_364.json", # clear glass
    ], # (1)
    gaps=[
        fr.Gap(
            [fr.Gas("air", 0.1), fr.Gas("argon", 0.9)], 0.0127
        )
    ],
)

1. The list of glazing/shading product files should be in order from exterior to interior.